JAMES 3:1-6
TAMING THE TONGUE
[Matthew 12:37, Proverbs 13:3]
The children in a prominent family decided to create for their father’s birthday a book of the family’s history. They commissioned a professional biographer to do the work, carefully warning him of the family’s "black sheep" problem: Uncle George had been executed in the electric chair for murder. The biographer assured the children, "I can handle that situation so that there will be no embarrassment. I’ll merely say that Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties and his death came as a real shock."
James has been pronouncing judgment on the separation between faith and works. In no area is this more likely than in the area of human speech. While Christians profess one thing with their speech, they often practice something quite different. Nothing is opened more by mistake than the mouth. John Calvin said "there is nothing more slippery or loose than the tongue."
The Bible makes the control and proper use of the tongue a matter of great importance. The general thought in chapter three is that another way to measure spiritual maturity is the believer’s power over his tongue. So James moves from idle faith to idle speech. Just as disturbing as those who have "faith" and no works are those who substitute words for works. Though the tongue is small, it is powerful and far too prone to excess, perversion and pollution. But the Christian who gains control over the tongue can control his life as well (CIM).
I. STRICTER JUDGMENT, 1.
II. CONTROL PRIORITY, 2.
III. DIRECTING POWER, 3-5.
IV. DEFINING POWER, 6.
The passage begins with a statement of the Christian teacher’ responsibility in verse 1. "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment."
Again with the address my brethren James begins a new topic. The Jewish culture that predominated these churches highly prized the office of teacher. The word rabbi actually means my great one. The position of teacher offered respect, prominence, prestige and power and many sought its high honor.
Mixed motives can propel people to aspire to teach. But not many should become teachers. The reason set forth is that teachers incur greater responsibility before God and thus will incur a more severe standard of judgment. Teaching is a great and high calling but those who teach must understand their greater responsibilities and accountability due to their greater influence (Lk 20:47; Mt 23:1-33). Teachers must be careful what they say with both their words and life. They must use their tongue to share God’s truth and refrain from sinning with their tongue. Furthermore teachers must practice what they teach otherwise they are hypocrites. A doctor who neglects his health, an accountant who doesn’t balance his checkbook or an attorney in trouble with the law contradict what they stand for. Likewise Bible teachers who do not use their tongue to develop or build up their students in the truth contradict their reason for being.
Church leadership comes with responsibilities. You shouldn’t take a position of leadership in church unless you are prepared to be honest, pure, and loving in your lifestyle. Leadership is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. God holds teachers of His truth doubly responsible because we who lead are in a position where we can either draw people toward Christ or lead them astray.
This is illustrated in the life of the famous author MARK TWAIN. Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Bible and the Christian faith. As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned slaves and abused them. He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday. He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery. Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders that he became bitter toward the things of God.
Indeed, it is a privilege to be an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, or a Bible club leader. But it is also an awesome responsibility. Let’s make sure we attract people to the Savior rather than turn them away. A good leader is one who knows the way, shows the way, and goes the way.
[THE TEACHER] The story is told of a teacher named Pestalozzi who lived in a Swiss village. He was highly esteemed by his peers and deeply loved by the children, whose lives were molded by the strength of his character. After he died, a statue of him was erected in the town. When the sculpture was unveiled, everyone was amazed to see how much it resembled the old master. The teacher was shown kneeling down, with a little child looking up into his face. But those who knew him best felt the sculptor had missed the dominant desire of the teacher–to have his students look up to the challenging heights of learning, and to God - not to him. So the statue was changed, and a second unveiling revealed the child peering toward heaven rather than looking at the teacher.
A good teacher of the Bible longs to evoke a similar response from his pupils. Teaching the truths of Scripture to God’s people and explaining the essentials of the gospel to the unsaved is a privilege beyond compare. But it is also a solemn responsibility.
The temptation we face when we instruct people is the tendency to draw attention to ourselves. How much more effective will be our teaching when our students look beyond us to the God of Truth. A good teacher captures a student’s attention so he can direct it toward God. Let’s always point people to Him.
II. CONTROL PRIORITY, 2.
Verse 2 explains the need to control the tongue. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
The concern for responsible use of the tongue is expanded to include all people. All is in the emphatic position in the Greek. James uses we indicating that he too made "slips" of the tongue. We all show our imperfection and sinfulness by committing sins of the tongue. In the same way we demonstrate our maturity by controlling the tongue. The text teaches that if a person disciplines his tongue he can control his whole body as well. If a person can bring the tongue under control he or she is able to keep other areas of life in check as well. If you are having difficulty disciplining areas of your life, start first with the tongue and all the other areas will more readily fall in line.
During World War II posters everywhere read Loose Lips Sink Ships. But loose lips also wreck lives. What you say and what you don’t say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn’t. Examples of an untamed tongue include gossiping, putting others down, bragging, manipulating, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. Before you speak, ask, "Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?"
[RUMORS] Imagine trying to put out a wind-blown forest fire with a squirt gun. That’s what Gerber Products, the baby-food company, felt they were doing in 1997. Someone somewhere started a false rumor about the company that spread like wildfire.
According to John Schmeltzer in the Chicago Tribune, the rumor said Gerber had been involved in a class-action lawsuit and would give a $500 gift certificate to families with children to settle the suit. Supposedly all the parents had to do to get the money was send a claim form and copies of their children’s birth certificates and social security numbers to a post-office box in Minneapolis by October 1, 1997.
Once the rumor caught fire, it began to spread along channels that gave it an appearance of legitimacy: notices were posted in hospitals and sent home with children by school teachers. One corporation even put the false notice in the envelope with their employees’ paychecks.
Gerber Products tried to stomp out the bogus story, putting a notice on several internet web sites, tracking down sources of the rumor, and informing the media. Nevertheless, they received over 18,000 phone calls to their toll-free telephone number in the three-week period before October 1 from people requesting the bogus claim form.
According to Schmeltzer, the cost to Gerber Products of fighting this rumor was in the millions of dollars.
Passing along a rumor may seem harmless, but someone pays an undeserved price if we are not careful about the truth. Never take lightly the misuse of the tongue to do others harm.
III. DIRECTING POWER, 3-5.
The tongue is a small piece of muscle covered with mucous membrane. Do not let its size mislead you. According to James, it is tiny but terrible. He gave three vivid illustrations of things that are small but strong: (1) the small bit controls the great power of the horse, verse 3; (2) the small rudder controls the significant direction of the ship; and (3) the small brush fire can destroy the great forest.
Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
The horse by nature is wild and unmanageable yet it may have its fiery temper subdued and its movements controlled by a rider. All that is needed to accomplish this is a small bit placed into the horse’s mouth over its tongue. From that point on all the rider must do is pull and he controls this powerful animal’s whole body.
The application is obvious. If people can control their tongues they can control their whole body as well. If you are having problems disciplining your body or life, start by learning to control your tongue.
If such things as finances, exercise, weight, procrastination, getting up, getting motivated, study habits or other habits are a problem, first try getting a hold of your tongue. You then will have greater success in controlling other areas of your life.
The second example of a ship’s utter is used in verse 4. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.
Even when ships are driven by gales and violent winds they yield to the direction of a small rudder. James could not have imagine today’s huge ships but even they are directed by comparatively small rudders. Compared to the size of a ship the rudder is small, but its importance in controlling the ship demands careful attention in its use.
In the same way the small muscle in the human mouth can change the direction of a life or even human history. Adolf Hitler recorded his Nazi philosophy in the book Mein Kampf. Someone has noted that for every word in that book, more than a hundred lives were lost in World War II. Words do change the direction of history.
In April 21, 1855, Edward Kimball went into a Boston shoe store and used his tongue to lead young Dwight L. Moody to Christ. The result changed not only the direction of Moody’s life but multiplied thousands of others. The tongue has great power to direct others in right or wrong directions.
The first part of verse 5 summarizes the point of these illustrations. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. [b] See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
Like the bit for the horse and the rudder for the ship, the tongue is small in relation to the body yet has a powerful potential to achieve huge results, both good and bad. It can stir up violence or promote peace. It can crush the spirit or soothe the discouraged. It can spread rumors or it can teach truth. The tongue boasts of great exploits.
In the second part of verse 5 James describes the tongues destructive capacity by comparing it to a small fire that sets a forest ablaze. The uncontrolled tongue is a source of great destruction. Just as a little flame can destroy a huge forest, a small misuse of the tongue can cause pain and agony to many.
[FIRE] The tongue like a spark can start a chain of events that ends in catastrophe. The great fire in London in 1666 began in a small shop, but as it spread out of control, it left most of that sprawling city in ashes. The fire of 1871 in Chicago is said to have started in O’Leary’s shed when a lamp was accidently turned over. It spread over 2,000 acres, left over 100,000 homeless, destroyed 17,500 buildings and 300 people died. It cost the city over $400 million. In February, 1983, a firestorm ravaged southwestern Australia. Winds built to gale force; and, within hours, flames raced along miles of coast. Within hours a broad arc of rich farmland and a fragrant eucalyptus forest lay reduced to scorched earth. Seventy-five people died, and property damage totaled more than $2,500,000.
James compared the tongue’s destructive power to such a fire. A single word can char a person’s reputation for life. The most deadly member in the human body is the tongue. We can kick with our feet and strike with our fist, but neither can do as much damage as a loose tongue. The bruise of a kick will heal, the black eye caused by a blow from a fist will clear up. But the wounds inflicted by unkind words, idle gossip, outright lying, and vicious slandering can never be completely healed.
Yes, the tongue can quickly spark a conflagration of evil that may leave someone’s reputation in ashes. If used improperly, that flame-shaped organ can also ignite the fire of sinful passion in another person, or destroy the innocence of a child by corrupting his pure mind. Be extremely careful my friend, of what you say. Remember, a few careless words have the potential to destroy a life or wreck a career. Which is the reason that God hold us so accountable to Him for our use of our tongue.
IV. DEFILING POWER, 6.
And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
The tongue is a fire is a reference to what it is by nature in its ungoverned state. The metaphor calls attention to the tongues destructiveness. Fire under control can be a great boon and blessing to man. By it he drives the chill and the dampness from his house, by it he cooks his food, by it he drives the engines of industry; but fire out of control leaves in its wake desolation and waste. It spreads with relentless fury, sparing nothing that will burn. Fire, then, is an apt figure of the devastating effects of an untamed tongue. It, like fire, scorches, blasts, consumes!
The tongue can produce ruin and maybe used to produce a system of iniquity within our body. The tongue can be misused to produce many wicked things, three of these results are given. First, it can corrupt or defile the whole person. The tongue wrongly used pollutes man’s whole personality and nature. It does this by being used as an organ for sin.
The tongue also sets on fire the course of life, literally the wheels of existence. It is as though the tongue is at the center or hub of the wheel and is set on fire. This fire spreads outward and the faster the wheel spins the faster the flame is fanned in all directions.
What could possible be the source of this fire? The tongue is set on fire by hell. This describes satan as the one who sets our tongue to flaming. Satan uses the tongue to divide people and put them against one another. Idle and hateful words are damaging because they spread destruction quickly, and no one can stop the results once they are spoken. A few words spoken in anger can destroy a relationship that took years to build. The tongue is fed by the never dying flames of hell. It is a bold statement expressing a frightening truth.
Let us also remember however that while the tongue is often set on fire by hell, it can also be touched with a live coal from the altar of God (Isa. 6:6-7) to purify it. This was seen at Pentecost where tongues of fire rested over the believers in the upper room. The tongue can also be set on fire by heaven and speak forth God’s light to a dark world.
Who or what is setting your tongue on fire? After your tongue get to going and firing off words, are you, or those you are with, sharing the gospel or doing some good or noble deed? If not then who do you think fire up your tongue? The very fires of a devil’s hell.
CONCLUSION
Richard Conniff writes in National Geographic that on January 12, 1997, two Swiss men, Bertrand Piccard and Wim Verstraeten, set out to be the first to CIRCLE THE EARTH in a balloon. Their aircraft was called the Breitling Orbiter, and it was high-tech masterpiece, complete with solar power panels and an airtight capsule for pressurized flight at high altitudes that would enable them to fly the jet stream at two hundred miles and hour. Price tag: $1.5 million.
Shortly after liftoff, however, calamity struck. With the cabin sealed tight and pressurized, the pilots suddenly noticed strong kerosene fumes.
Soon they e-mailed their control center: "Kerosene’s coming through each pipe on both inside tanks and we cannot tighten them any more. It is a nightmare....Answer quick."
They were advised to lower their altitude, open the capsule, and hold on until they could reach the coast of Algeria. The fumes proved overwhelming, however, and they were forced to ditch in the Mediterranean and lost the craft.
The cause of the kerosene leak? A clamp, like those used on an automobile radiator hose, had failed. Price tag: $1.16.
It doesn’t take much to undermine a great enterprise.
God intends that the Christian life be a triumphant journey, but often we allow small things like our tongue to scuttle God’s grand plan for us.
James 3:1-6 describes the tongue as it is by natural birth. By nature the tongue is ready to serve as a destructive instrument of evil. By grace though the tongue can become an instrument of blessing (Col. 4:6). We must not submit our tongue to be an instrument of discord and strife. If we surrender our tongue to God He can train our tongue into a force for good and righteousness, and we gain the potential to control our whole life as well.
Do you have control over all areas of your life? If not, start by surrendering your tongue to God’s gracious control.
We all talk too much! What heartaches are caused, homes broken up, friends estranged, wars incited by some hasty, angry word! Much of the conflict in the world is caused by a combination of a hostile mind and a wide mouth. You will seldom get in trouble by listening, and most of us can learn more from what others say than what we have to say.
Now, of course we should talk about our Savior and tell others about His love. But we must stop the idle chatter and hasty words that so often wound those around us. Someone has remarked, "If you talk when you’re angry, you’ll make the best speech you’ll always regret."
Think back in your own life and consider how much heartache was caused because you were not "swift to hear, slow to speak" (Jas. 1: 19).
Nothing is opened by mistake more often than the mouth.
Jesus said, "For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment" (Mt. 12:36). Before you speak to others, ask the Lord to teach you when to speak and when to be silent. You will save yourself a lot of heartache.
